The Ace Attorney series is one that I'm extremely fond off. I'd probably go as far as calling it my favorite series of video games. It's truly excellent, and it hits a number of notes that I'm particularly fond off without sacrificing much for people who don't have the exact niche of tastes that I do. It not only feels like a series made specifically for me - it's a series that has the strengths of something made specifically for me, plus a massive amount of other strengths that I appreciate.
I've recently played through the entire series again - with the exception of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright - in preparation for the sixth and newest entry, released a couple days ago, named Spirit of Justice. Me playing through the Ace Attorney series is nothing new. I've been playing and re-playing all these games for years, and have essentially memorized the original and most of the second game by now. However, this particular play-through of the series really made me appreciate the long-term arcs that the series presents, and as such has made me enjoy the games a considerable amount more.
I have thoughts about Spirit of Justice, but I can't even begin to approximate how I'd actually write a review of that game. I tried writing a review when I first played Dual Destinies something like 6 months ago, and it resulted in a spectacular and incoherent failure. As such, I'll simply go through the series so far in a series of posts, highlighting previous failures and successes, and simply put Spirit of Justice in context when compared to the previous games in the final post. This should tell fans of the series exactly what they need to know, and those that haven't played all of the previous games have no business playing Spirit of Justice. the games often tend to build on previous entries, and Spirit of Justice relies heavily on themes from Dual Destinies.
Spirit of Justice is the most beginner-unfriendly game in the series since Trials & Tribulations came out in 2004. For those looking to get into the series, I heartily recommend the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which can be purchased on the 3DS e-shop along with the next two games in the series as the Ace Attorney Trilogy for 15 pounds - a fantastic deal considering how long (and good) all of these games are. Whilst the original can't be beat as a jumping-in point, other good starting points include Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which is one of the weaker games in the series but is very beginner-friendly (Though you'll unfortunately need to hunt down a physical copy) and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, which is fantastic but not quite as the beginner-friendly as the previous two. I should also warn beginners that I'm giving myself free reign for spoilers from this point in this piece on. Got it? Good. I'm also going to ignore a lot of the stuff that makes the series good on a short term-basis: The individual puzzles you go through on trials, and the wacky, endearing, and extremely entertaining characters. I'm just assuming you know that those are brilliant. If not, take my word for it: they're brilliant.
Let's begin at the beginning then, with the original 2001 release Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Considering how big and convoluted the franchise grew to become, it's amazing how simple and humble this game really is. The First Turnabout, the first case in the series, makes a striking first impression and tells you exactly what you need to know: You're a defense attorney, and you'll bluff your way through trials, all whilst making deductions more similar to a detective than a lawyer, to prove your clients innocent. Straight off, The First Turnabout has something that'll be a staple of the series: Eventually, a witness will show up who obviously did it. At this point, you and the prosecution essentially switch places: You're trying to prove that it was the witness who did it and the prosecution tries to prove they couldn't have so that they can hopefully bounce back into attacking your client.
This seems to be an odd decision: Why not just make you a prosecutor? You do spend a lot of your time on the defensive, but the most satisfying and iconic moments of the series often come from that "I got you now!" feeling, when you finally manage to prove that a particularly slippery individual did it. I'd argue that this is actually kind of the point of the first three games (what is often called "the trilogy"), and it's a residual flaw in the rest. Phoenix Wright was first thought up as a parody of Japan's legal system, where prosecutors reign supreme and even the best and most experienced defense lawyers only have a couple wins under their belt. This shows very obviously in the first game with Miles Edgeworth.
Let's be honest here: Despite its title, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is very much not Phoenix's (I'll call him Nick from now on for obvious reasons) story. It's Miles Edgeworth's story. We first meet him as a terrifying and ruthless prosecutor in Turnabout Sisters. After just one case, you've had your tutor taken from you, and suddenly you're up against this guy who's never lost a case. He messes with your evidence (which you assume to be him falsifying evidence, even though it later becomes obvious this is not what he was doing), is incredibly tough after the pushover that was Winston Payne in the first case, and doesn't hesitate to give Redd White, the man who obviously did it, a way out in order to make his case. He continues this way through much of the third case, Turnabout Samurai, until in the end he unexpectedly helps you find the true killer, at which point your perception of him is severely thrown off-balance. Finally, Turnabout Goodbyes is his redemption: You learn Edgeworth and Nick's shared backstory, learn of the traumatic events in Edgeworth's past that led him to becoming a prosecutor and get to clash swords with his mentor Manfred von Karma, who is still the most terrifying prosecutor to date. Manfred von Karma has an advantage in this regard that no other prosecutor has: He is a straight-up villain. His constant blocking of you during trials doesn't need to come across as fair because it simply isn't.
Edgeworth and von Karma are very similar, with a vital difference: They're both ruthless prosecutors and they both despise criminals. Until you met Edgeworth, they both had perfect win records, and they both conduct themselves similarly in trials, with Edgeworth's body language even mimicking von Karma's to some extent (his animations in Trials and Tribulations' fourth case being almost exact copies of von Karma's is one of my favorite details in these games). The vital difference is their motivation: Edgeworth hates criminals, whilst von Karma loves perfection. Edgeworth's ideals are... well, idealistic, and so he can be redeemed, whilst von Karma is selfish and is portrayed as a villain. When it becomes clear to Edgeworth that his ways are so similar to someone as utterly evil as von Karma, he looses all faith in his role as a prosecutor and leaves for most of a game...
Or he would if Rise from the Ashes didn't exist. Rise from the Ashes is a tough one for me. It's a decent case, and I fairly enjoy playing it. That said, it's placed wrong. It belongs at the end of Justice for All. Whilst I don't know how well it would work there - I think the culprit is entirely too black-and-white to fit in that game, and there's obvious timeline inconsistencies - this case being at the end of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a detriment to the first game. It simply has Edgeworth being there, somewhat conflicted but mostly fine, and still acting as prosecutory as ever. Edgeworth and Nick trust each other in court - which is nice coming in from Turnabout Goodbyes, but completely ruins the impact of the end of Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations later in the series. Of course, Rise from the Ashes is a case added later on for the re-release on the DS, and as such it's comprehensible to not introduce a new prosecutor, but I really hate what it does for Edgeworth's arc and as such I choose to think of it as only half-cannon (It'd be a shame to let the Skye sisters' story line go to the non-cannon wasteland).
I don't know how much of the series was planned in advance - I don't believe anything was planned ahead when Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was being made, despite having no conclusive evidence - but it's amazing how well this game works as both its own story and as set-up for Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations. Edgeworth shows us how the court system is definitively not meant to work, and shows us whose fault it is that it's working this way: People like Manfred von Karma and Robert Hammond, who aren't in this for the purpose of justice, but for their own personal gain, whether it be monetary or simply stroking their own ego. Justice for All will expand on this by considering how whether the justice system is a force for good even when working properly, and Trials & Tribulations will build on what Justice for All leaves us with.
There's a few character arcs that I have to check in on at this point, largely because they'll be immensely important later on. First and perhaps most importantly is our titular not-quite-really-protagonist. Unbeknownst even to the player, Nick's mission, from the very start, is to drag Edgeworth back to his senses. As such, Nick doesn't get much development this game: Mia dies early on, which one would think would catalyze significant change in Nick, but it only really serves to make the stakes in Turnabout Sisters higher. All the other cases have him be too busy being a lawyer to get much development. That is something that will very much be left for the other two games, particularly Justice for All.
Another big character is Maya. It never actually fails to surprise me how little she's in this game. She's not in The First Turnabout, she's not in Turnabout Sisters that much and she doesn't appear at all in Rise from the Ashes. She's only really fully around for Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Goodbyes, which admittedly make up more than half the run time of the original four cases, but it's amazing that she's less than prominent in over half the game. Whilst she's an absolute delight, there's very little character development here. She's your bosses' sister who you have to defend for a case, and then she's your energetic sidekick. I love Maya in this game (and in every other game in the series), but she's not really particularly important to the long-term arcs until late in Trials and Tribulations. This is not to say she's not important to the series: She's obviously one of the most vital characters, second only to Nick (In the trilogy anyway): she's the emotional one in your duo, provides entertainment during investigation sequences, and her building friendship with Nick is really touching. I absolutely love Maya Fey, to the point where I genuinely tear up at some Maya moments, and she certainly makes my top 3 Ace Attorney characters, but she's not a major player in the level of storytelling that I'm planning to talk about in this series.
Finally, Gumshoe. He's been distrustful of you and intentionally unhelpful (despite being a good-natured and friendly guy) until Turnabout Goodbyes when he starts to help you because you're helping Edgeworth, whom he trusts. Then in Rise to the Ashes he's ridiculously helpful, but again, that case really should be at the end of Justice for All.
That's all I have to say about this game, so a bit of housekeeping to end off. I really enjoyed writing this, but it's possible I lose interest after posting it and don't go on with the series. Hopefully that won't happen: Justice for All has some juicy meat to tear into, despite being my least favorite game in the series to date. I also look forwards to Trials & Tribulations and beyond, where the overarching plot becomes less about criticizing law and more about the actual characters. In case I don't get to it, here's my quick opinion on Spirit of Justice, even though I haven't quite finished it yet: I just finished case 4 so the cornerstone that traditionally joins it all together in the form of the last case is still missing for me. I do mean quick: This is disorganized, not very coherent, and I'm not trying particularly hard to make it well written since I don't consider it part of the piece I'm writing. Unless you're really interested what this random stranger on the Internet thinks of SoJ, stop reading now.
So far, it's an extremely ambitious attempt at making the series larger in scope in a way that isn't quite successful, but that I admire. The new prosecutor might be my least favorite in the series (Yes, including Franziska). I think splitting it into two nations is brave but misguided, since it leaves both story-lines feeling underdeveloped. Rayfa and Divination Seances are great, though Rayfa needs case 5 to satisfyingly close up her arc. I really like how hostile the Khura'in court is, and how much harder the puzzles are in the trials there: It feels a lot more like an uphill climb in an unfamiliar court system that way.
Case 1 is the best case 1 in the series because of this, making a striking impression and thrusting you into an incredibly tense and unfamiliar situation right off the bat. Case 2 is good, though "Apollo and Nahyuta have a connection in their past" is lazy and feels like a re-tread of the original's "Edgeworth and Nick have a connection in their past", plus I instantly knew who the murderer was just from looking at them. Case 2 also feels a bit like old Case 3's in that it's weirdly disconnected from the main plot, but that's a fault of the two-country set up, and it's way better than any old Case 3 anyway. Case 3 is great, really tense the entire way through and with fantastic set up for what I assume will be Case 5, as well as a really clever mystery and twist, though the new characters for the case were meh. Case 4 is really strange: It's a one day trial without investigation but it can't possibly be as important as T&T's Case 4 unless Case 5 goes in a very weird direction. I love your assistant in this case, I think it's almost the best that character's been, though it's a bit infuriating that Athena seems to have completely forgotten how to lawyer and is painted as more of a noob than when she was working Case 3 in DD. It feels like it's there just to have 5 cases including a case where you play as Athena, and I'm almost tempted to believe this was meant to be Case 1 at some point, or maybe a short, cheap DLC case. Still, I actually really enjoyed it, with it being a solid mystery with colorful characters and a satisfying solution. The soundtrack in this game is great, though I don't like the objection theme remixes, they just sound worse than in DD, plus I'd love to return to the trilogy convention of new themes every game.
Spirit of Justice is a great game, though so far it's probably my second or third least favorite (I can't decide whether it's better than Apollo Justice or not). That's mostly due to how flip-floppy it feels with the two settings, though it's very possible that the last case brings it all together. After all, I felt only slightly more enthusiastic about Dual Destinies four cases in, but case 5 skyrocketed that one to my second or third favorite (I can't decide whether I like the original more or not). That said, even being Justice for All, my least favorite Ace Attorney game, is being a better game than most games, so Spirit of Justice really is fantastic.
I've recently played through the entire series again - with the exception of Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright - in preparation for the sixth and newest entry, released a couple days ago, named Spirit of Justice. Me playing through the Ace Attorney series is nothing new. I've been playing and re-playing all these games for years, and have essentially memorized the original and most of the second game by now. However, this particular play-through of the series really made me appreciate the long-term arcs that the series presents, and as such has made me enjoy the games a considerable amount more.
I have thoughts about Spirit of Justice, but I can't even begin to approximate how I'd actually write a review of that game. I tried writing a review when I first played Dual Destinies something like 6 months ago, and it resulted in a spectacular and incoherent failure. As such, I'll simply go through the series so far in a series of posts, highlighting previous failures and successes, and simply put Spirit of Justice in context when compared to the previous games in the final post. This should tell fans of the series exactly what they need to know, and those that haven't played all of the previous games have no business playing Spirit of Justice. the games often tend to build on previous entries, and Spirit of Justice relies heavily on themes from Dual Destinies.
Spirit of Justice is the most beginner-unfriendly game in the series since Trials & Tribulations came out in 2004. For those looking to get into the series, I heartily recommend the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which can be purchased on the 3DS e-shop along with the next two games in the series as the Ace Attorney Trilogy for 15 pounds - a fantastic deal considering how long (and good) all of these games are. Whilst the original can't be beat as a jumping-in point, other good starting points include Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which is one of the weaker games in the series but is very beginner-friendly (Though you'll unfortunately need to hunt down a physical copy) and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies, which is fantastic but not quite as the beginner-friendly as the previous two. I should also warn beginners that I'm giving myself free reign for spoilers from this point in this piece on. Got it? Good. I'm also going to ignore a lot of the stuff that makes the series good on a short term-basis: The individual puzzles you go through on trials, and the wacky, endearing, and extremely entertaining characters. I'm just assuming you know that those are brilliant. If not, take my word for it: they're brilliant.
Let's begin at the beginning then, with the original 2001 release Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Considering how big and convoluted the franchise grew to become, it's amazing how simple and humble this game really is. The First Turnabout, the first case in the series, makes a striking first impression and tells you exactly what you need to know: You're a defense attorney, and you'll bluff your way through trials, all whilst making deductions more similar to a detective than a lawyer, to prove your clients innocent. Straight off, The First Turnabout has something that'll be a staple of the series: Eventually, a witness will show up who obviously did it. At this point, you and the prosecution essentially switch places: You're trying to prove that it was the witness who did it and the prosecution tries to prove they couldn't have so that they can hopefully bounce back into attacking your client.
This seems to be an odd decision: Why not just make you a prosecutor? You do spend a lot of your time on the defensive, but the most satisfying and iconic moments of the series often come from that "I got you now!" feeling, when you finally manage to prove that a particularly slippery individual did it. I'd argue that this is actually kind of the point of the first three games (what is often called "the trilogy"), and it's a residual flaw in the rest. Phoenix Wright was first thought up as a parody of Japan's legal system, where prosecutors reign supreme and even the best and most experienced defense lawyers only have a couple wins under their belt. This shows very obviously in the first game with Miles Edgeworth.
Let's be honest here: Despite its title, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is very much not Phoenix's (I'll call him Nick from now on for obvious reasons) story. It's Miles Edgeworth's story. We first meet him as a terrifying and ruthless prosecutor in Turnabout Sisters. After just one case, you've had your tutor taken from you, and suddenly you're up against this guy who's never lost a case. He messes with your evidence (which you assume to be him falsifying evidence, even though it later becomes obvious this is not what he was doing), is incredibly tough after the pushover that was Winston Payne in the first case, and doesn't hesitate to give Redd White, the man who obviously did it, a way out in order to make his case. He continues this way through much of the third case, Turnabout Samurai, until in the end he unexpectedly helps you find the true killer, at which point your perception of him is severely thrown off-balance. Finally, Turnabout Goodbyes is his redemption: You learn Edgeworth and Nick's shared backstory, learn of the traumatic events in Edgeworth's past that led him to becoming a prosecutor and get to clash swords with his mentor Manfred von Karma, who is still the most terrifying prosecutor to date. Manfred von Karma has an advantage in this regard that no other prosecutor has: He is a straight-up villain. His constant blocking of you during trials doesn't need to come across as fair because it simply isn't.
Edgeworth and von Karma are very similar, with a vital difference: They're both ruthless prosecutors and they both despise criminals. Until you met Edgeworth, they both had perfect win records, and they both conduct themselves similarly in trials, with Edgeworth's body language even mimicking von Karma's to some extent (his animations in Trials and Tribulations' fourth case being almost exact copies of von Karma's is one of my favorite details in these games). The vital difference is their motivation: Edgeworth hates criminals, whilst von Karma loves perfection. Edgeworth's ideals are... well, idealistic, and so he can be redeemed, whilst von Karma is selfish and is portrayed as a villain. When it becomes clear to Edgeworth that his ways are so similar to someone as utterly evil as von Karma, he looses all faith in his role as a prosecutor and leaves for most of a game...
Or he would if Rise from the Ashes didn't exist. Rise from the Ashes is a tough one for me. It's a decent case, and I fairly enjoy playing it. That said, it's placed wrong. It belongs at the end of Justice for All. Whilst I don't know how well it would work there - I think the culprit is entirely too black-and-white to fit in that game, and there's obvious timeline inconsistencies - this case being at the end of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a detriment to the first game. It simply has Edgeworth being there, somewhat conflicted but mostly fine, and still acting as prosecutory as ever. Edgeworth and Nick trust each other in court - which is nice coming in from Turnabout Goodbyes, but completely ruins the impact of the end of Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations later in the series. Of course, Rise from the Ashes is a case added later on for the re-release on the DS, and as such it's comprehensible to not introduce a new prosecutor, but I really hate what it does for Edgeworth's arc and as such I choose to think of it as only half-cannon (It'd be a shame to let the Skye sisters' story line go to the non-cannon wasteland).
I don't know how much of the series was planned in advance - I don't believe anything was planned ahead when Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was being made, despite having no conclusive evidence - but it's amazing how well this game works as both its own story and as set-up for Justice for All and Trials & Tribulations. Edgeworth shows us how the court system is definitively not meant to work, and shows us whose fault it is that it's working this way: People like Manfred von Karma and Robert Hammond, who aren't in this for the purpose of justice, but for their own personal gain, whether it be monetary or simply stroking their own ego. Justice for All will expand on this by considering how whether the justice system is a force for good even when working properly, and Trials & Tribulations will build on what Justice for All leaves us with.
There's a few character arcs that I have to check in on at this point, largely because they'll be immensely important later on. First and perhaps most importantly is our titular not-quite-really-protagonist. Unbeknownst even to the player, Nick's mission, from the very start, is to drag Edgeworth back to his senses. As such, Nick doesn't get much development this game: Mia dies early on, which one would think would catalyze significant change in Nick, but it only really serves to make the stakes in Turnabout Sisters higher. All the other cases have him be too busy being a lawyer to get much development. That is something that will very much be left for the other two games, particularly Justice for All.
Another big character is Maya. It never actually fails to surprise me how little she's in this game. She's not in The First Turnabout, she's not in Turnabout Sisters that much and she doesn't appear at all in Rise from the Ashes. She's only really fully around for Turnabout Samurai and Turnabout Goodbyes, which admittedly make up more than half the run time of the original four cases, but it's amazing that she's less than prominent in over half the game. Whilst she's an absolute delight, there's very little character development here. She's your bosses' sister who you have to defend for a case, and then she's your energetic sidekick. I love Maya in this game (and in every other game in the series), but she's not really particularly important to the long-term arcs until late in Trials and Tribulations. This is not to say she's not important to the series: She's obviously one of the most vital characters, second only to Nick (In the trilogy anyway): she's the emotional one in your duo, provides entertainment during investigation sequences, and her building friendship with Nick is really touching. I absolutely love Maya Fey, to the point where I genuinely tear up at some Maya moments, and she certainly makes my top 3 Ace Attorney characters, but she's not a major player in the level of storytelling that I'm planning to talk about in this series.
Finally, Gumshoe. He's been distrustful of you and intentionally unhelpful (despite being a good-natured and friendly guy) until Turnabout Goodbyes when he starts to help you because you're helping Edgeworth, whom he trusts. Then in Rise to the Ashes he's ridiculously helpful, but again, that case really should be at the end of Justice for All.
That's all I have to say about this game, so a bit of housekeeping to end off. I really enjoyed writing this, but it's possible I lose interest after posting it and don't go on with the series. Hopefully that won't happen: Justice for All has some juicy meat to tear into, despite being my least favorite game in the series to date. I also look forwards to Trials & Tribulations and beyond, where the overarching plot becomes less about criticizing law and more about the actual characters. In case I don't get to it, here's my quick opinion on Spirit of Justice, even though I haven't quite finished it yet: I just finished case 4 so the cornerstone that traditionally joins it all together in the form of the last case is still missing for me. I do mean quick: This is disorganized, not very coherent, and I'm not trying particularly hard to make it well written since I don't consider it part of the piece I'm writing. Unless you're really interested what this random stranger on the Internet thinks of SoJ, stop reading now.
So far, it's an extremely ambitious attempt at making the series larger in scope in a way that isn't quite successful, but that I admire. The new prosecutor might be my least favorite in the series (Yes, including Franziska). I think splitting it into two nations is brave but misguided, since it leaves both story-lines feeling underdeveloped. Rayfa and Divination Seances are great, though Rayfa needs case 5 to satisfyingly close up her arc. I really like how hostile the Khura'in court is, and how much harder the puzzles are in the trials there: It feels a lot more like an uphill climb in an unfamiliar court system that way.
Case 1 is the best case 1 in the series because of this, making a striking impression and thrusting you into an incredibly tense and unfamiliar situation right off the bat. Case 2 is good, though "Apollo and Nahyuta have a connection in their past" is lazy and feels like a re-tread of the original's "Edgeworth and Nick have a connection in their past", plus I instantly knew who the murderer was just from looking at them. Case 2 also feels a bit like old Case 3's in that it's weirdly disconnected from the main plot, but that's a fault of the two-country set up, and it's way better than any old Case 3 anyway. Case 3 is great, really tense the entire way through and with fantastic set up for what I assume will be Case 5, as well as a really clever mystery and twist, though the new characters for the case were meh. Case 4 is really strange: It's a one day trial without investigation but it can't possibly be as important as T&T's Case 4 unless Case 5 goes in a very weird direction. I love your assistant in this case, I think it's almost the best that character's been, though it's a bit infuriating that Athena seems to have completely forgotten how to lawyer and is painted as more of a noob than when she was working Case 3 in DD. It feels like it's there just to have 5 cases including a case where you play as Athena, and I'm almost tempted to believe this was meant to be Case 1 at some point, or maybe a short, cheap DLC case. Still, I actually really enjoyed it, with it being a solid mystery with colorful characters and a satisfying solution. The soundtrack in this game is great, though I don't like the objection theme remixes, they just sound worse than in DD, plus I'd love to return to the trilogy convention of new themes every game.
Spirit of Justice is a great game, though so far it's probably my second or third least favorite (I can't decide whether it's better than Apollo Justice or not). That's mostly due to how flip-floppy it feels with the two settings, though it's very possible that the last case brings it all together. After all, I felt only slightly more enthusiastic about Dual Destinies four cases in, but case 5 skyrocketed that one to my second or third favorite (I can't decide whether I like the original more or not). That said, even being Justice for All, my least favorite Ace Attorney game, is being a better game than most games, so Spirit of Justice really is fantastic.
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